Armed Forces Bowl

The Wiz of Odds is conducting a comprehensive study of bowl game expense reports. All of the data collected — expense reports for 56 teams and bowl surveys for 40 teams — are being posted on the site. Here is the latest installment. For an overview of the project, click here.

First played in 2003, the Armed Forces Bowl is one of seven postseason games owned and operated by ESPN.  The Dallas-area game is traditionally played at Amon G. Carter Stadium on the campus of Texas Christian University, but was moved to Gerald J. Ford Stadium on Southern Methodist University's campus for 2010 and 2011 because of a renovation of Carter Stadium. 

2010 participants: Army and Southern Methodist.

Army expenses: The high cost of being an independent is evident in the Black Knights' report. The team committed to purchasing 10,000 tickets at $40 each. Although it sold all 10,000, 3,975 were sold at lower prices —from $25 to $33. That amounted to absorbed ticket costs of $159,000. Total reported expenses were $572,817. Army did manage to keep costs down by limiting its official travel party to 188. Only Florida International brought a smaller official party (172) to the postseason among the 56 reports obtained by The Wiz of Odds. Download Army Expenses

Survey: West Point officials redacted the name of the athletic director on documents sent to The Wiz of Odds. Kevin Anderson was Army's athletic director, but moved to a similar post at Maryland last September. Whoever filled out the survey was complimentary throughout and answered "very satisfied" on nearly every question.

They did, however, respond with a "neutral" rating on the number of credentials issued by bowl officials.

The person filling in the survey also noted they were "satisfied" with the ticket commitment and cost of game tickets.

Summing up his experience, they wrote: "The entire event was well organized and executed. Success was achieved through a lot of open dialogue running up to bowl week. The bowl staff were always available for questions and did a great job of aniticipating [sic] our needs." Download Army Survey

Southern Methodist: The private school refused to offer its expense report or bowl survey to The Wiz of Odds.

Comments

[ArmyFan]

Re: absorbed ticket costs...

Army "purchased" 10K tickets @ $40 each = $400K

Army sold
6,025 @ $40 = $241K
325 @ $30 = $9,750
150 @ $33 = $4,950
3,500 @ $25 = 87.5K

for a total of $343.2K

So didn't the school actually absorb $400K minus $343.2K = $56.8K?

[The Wiz]

Why Army left the $25, $30 and $33 tickets off the final total is unclear. I have an email into Army asking for clarification.

[ArmyFan]

thanks

[ArmyFan]

Any update?

Or are they ignoring you? :-)

[The Wiz]

I have yet to get an answer back from them but will check again next week.

[ArmyFan]

They're not answering the phone, huh?